autonomous vehicle lane

grade15

As the UK begins to brace for autonomous vehicles on our roads,
Do you think the government could introduce autonomous vehicle lanes on our motorways especially on our smart motorways? This would reduce accidents and traffic jams as well as reduce the anxiety of other drivers (normal operating vehicles) as they know that autonomous vehicles are in their own lane, except when exiting or entering the motorway. Maybe something Martin could champion this to the government!

For every 10,000 errors
made by a human driver,
an autonomous vehicle
will make just one
Source: Institution of Engineering and Technology

what are your thoughts?

bigisi

grade15 wrote: »

As the UK begins to brace for autonomous vehicles on our roads,
Do you think the government could introduce autonomous vehicle lanes on our motorways especially on our smart motorways? This would reduce accidents and traffic jams as well as reduce the anxiety of other drivers (normal operating vehicles) as they know that autonomous vehicles are in their own lane, except when exiting or entering the motorway. Maybe something Martin could champion this to the government!


what are your thoughts?

Maybe Martin could but as has he nothing to do with this forum he's unlikely to see your suggestion.

grade15

I know..lets put some keywords in this thread..maybe he can pick it up.. Martin Lewis, facebook, scam , fake ads...SORTED

verityboo

Perhaps the left hand lane could be used, I usually find that empty?

AdrianC

grade15 wrote: »

Do you think the government could introduce autonomous vehicle lanes on our motorways especially on our smart motorways?

Wouldn't that simply be an admission that they were incapable of playing properly with other traffic, so weren't ready to be let loose outside of properly managed trials?


And that's ignoring the effects on congestion of removing a proportion of m'way capacity - something that a lot of money is being spent on increasing.

grade15

we have cycle, bus and pedestrian lane, but it would give a chance for everyone to get familiar with autonomous vehicles...


but you do have a point!

Johno100

I suppose it is something that might happen when/if autonomous vehicles become available to the public and represent a substantial share of the vehicles on the roads, but not before then.

Thinking about it, feasibly if autonomous vehicles were in a dedicated lane then they'd be able to able to travel much closer to the vehicle in front than it is safe to do today thus increasing road capacity.

System

grade15 wrote: »

As the UK begins to brace for autonomous vehicles on our roads,
Do you think the government could introduce autonomous vehicle lanes on our motorways especially on our smart motorways? This would reduce accidents and traffic jams

what are your thoughts?

How would reducing the capacity of the motorway for normal vehicles by 25%-50% reduce traffic jams?

grade15

1) if autonomous vehicles are all in one lane, driving relatively all at the same speed (less pollution, less braking, less speeding, safer and less traffic jams as the vehicles will know when to slow down in advance rather than the "ops I didn't see that car in front brake" and the chain reaction from that)
2) if 1/3 of vehicles were autonomous then they will be using one lane, so the remaining lanes is enough for normal vehicles.
3) normal vehicles will use all the available space it has rather than consistently change lanes - driving from slow lane, middle lane and overtaking lane.
its not ideal but gradually over time, when all vehicles are autonomous, then their won't be any fuss!

forgotmyname

With the accident rate increasing with autonomous cars, are they really safe to let out in public?

Maybe realease on a a care in the community basis?

I wonder what all those that said the accident rate in them was very low will say now?

Yes on closed road tests and short drive around the blocks where there is very little traffic. But it seems they still have major issues.

Accident rate is climbing.

Car_54

Johno100 wrote: »

Thinking about it, feasibly if autonomous vehicles were in a dedicated lane then they'd be able to able to travel much closer to the vehicle in front than it is safe to do today thus increasing road capacity.

Surely just "a bit closer". At 70 mph the thinking distance (which would not be needed) is 21 metres, but that still leaves a braking distance of 75 meters.


Anyway, with all due respect to the OP, this seems a pointless idea. Motorways are by far our safest roads, so any real-life problems with autonomous vehicles are much more likely to arise elsewhere. Also, I suspect you'll find that a substantial proportion of motorway accidents occur with vehicles entering or leaving, which dedicated lanes would not help.